Design Inspiration: Lessons from Los Angeles

By Garrett Omvig

At CGS, we believe that being a great designer comes from going out into the world and engaging in it, not from sitting at your desk twelve hours a day, every day. We’re curious about places we haven’t been to and people we’ve yet to meet. This curiosity is deeply engrained in our culture and values. To that end, I recently took a trip to Los Angeles and found it immediately and overwhelmingly inspiring. Los Angeles is more than just a coastal city with beautiful beaches and weather; it's a vibrant tapestry of culture, creativity, and architectural innovation.

The Eames House: Simplicity and Play

Nestled in Pacific Palisades, the Eames House was the residence of designers Charles and Ray Eames. Conceived as a combined home and studio, the house reflects the Eameses' approach to design: that it can be both useful and playful. Its modular, boxy volumes and glazed facades create a clear simplicity that frames the landscape rather than competing with it.

What struck me was how the house handles contrast—bold, industrial materials and bright interiors set against a quiet natural site—a link between human creativity and nature. The house's open loft-like space, abundant natural light, and use of timber and textiles convey a quiet restraint and attention to detail. These things make the house feel both lived-in and carefully planned.

A designer can bring Eames House ideas into spaces by putting daylight and outdoor views first, using clear planning strategies, and adding targeted color accents to spark creativity. The result is practical, flexible spaces that mix craft and playfulness, and feel warm and human.

The Huntington Gardens: Composed Calm

A short drive to San Marino, California took me to the Huntington Gardens, a notable example of landscape design. The large grounds have many themed sections, each offering a different kind of natural beauty; paths, sightlines, and planned plantings guide movement and mood. While walking the gardens, I felt how nature can bring calm.

The Japanese Garden stood out with its calm koi pond, moon bridge, and neat plantings—a lesson in restraint: simple forms, balance, and clear focal points that fit well in spatial design. The Desert Garden, wide and sunbaked, has many cacti and succulents, with tall and short species, varied colors, and contrasting textures. The Chinese Garden—one of the largest outside China—uses pavilions, bridges, and reflective lakes to create a quiet retreat, showing how water, framed views, and small architectural moments shape experience.

This visit confirmed how thoughtful composition with nature can support well‑being. Apply it in interiors by creating clear circulation and framed views, using tactile materials and modest water or reflective elements where appropriate, and favoring simple, deliberate gestures. Together, these choices can foster calm, resilient spaces for focus.

The Broad Museum: Designing for Discovery

The Broad Museum, designed by architect Diller Scofidio + Renfro and completed in 2015, is a study in movement: visitors ascend an escalator through a softly lit, radiused tunnel that tightens then opens, creating a deliberate sequence of arrival. The museum’s top-down sequence creates a clear story—big airy halls for large works, medium rooms for paintings, and small niches for close looking—so circulation itself becomes part of the show.

Installations like Yayoi Kusama’s Infinity Mirror Rooms, along with big sculptural works, shape how you move and look; reflective surfaces, repetition, and framed sightlines blur the line between viewer, art, and building. These works show how scale, empty space, and controlled daylight can deepen focus without overwhelming a room.

As a designer, there are three simple lessons: (1) plan circulation to create moments of arrival and discovery; (2) use different scales and daylight to support collaboration, focus, and reflection; and (3) add small immersive pockets—quiet nooks or reflective features—that break up an open plan and spark creativity while keeping clear paths around main elements.

LACMA: A Palette of Inspiration

At the Los Angeles County Museum of Art (LACMA), galleries and outdoor pieces unfold like chapters in a sketchbook—each room with a different mood, color story, and material. Walking the campus moves you through sun-washed sculpture courts, quiet galleries, and bold contemporary displays; the variety reminds me as a designer to check context—natural light, surroundings, and scale—before picking finishes or colors.

A highlight was Chris Burden’s Metropolis II: a kinetic installation of toy cars and layered tracks notable for its engineered rhythm. Its density, pace, and playful engineering showed how motion, modular systems, and repetition can make a still space feel alive. The piece also stressed legibility: even when complex, clear viewing angles let the work be seen and enjoyed.

As an interior designer, I take these lessons: layer materials and contrasting colors to make zones; add modular elements (movable partitions, playful fixtures, or simple “tracks” for activity) to add energy; and always keep clear sightlines and daylight so busy compositions stay readable and comfortable.

Hollyhock House: Pattern, Texture, and Spatial Order

The Hollyhock House, designed by Frank Lloyd Wright, feels like home and garden woven together. Wright’s hollyhock motif and Mayan‑inspired ornament—carved reliefs and patterned concrete—sit lightly on the site, while wide glass walls and deep overhangs frame outdoor rooms as extensions of the interior.

The experience is full of thresholds—shaded loggias, terraces, and a central grassy courtyard that serves as the organizing heart. Two features stood out: a historic watercourse that flowed through the house, linking to exterior pools, and a wall of glass doors to the courtyard that enables cross‑ventilation and plentiful daylight, suitable to LA’s climate, making the courtyard a year‑round living room.

Hollyhock’s mix of ornamental concrete, textile block, and strong indoor–outdoor connections can inform workplace design: use meaningful texture and pattern, prioritize clear views and flexible thresholds, and add subtle reflective elements to calm and enliven. The result: offices that balance shelter and openness, human scale and legibility, creating shared cores where people linger, work together, and feel rooted.

Finding Inspiration in Every Facet

Thinking back on my time in Los Angeles, I see how these visits shape my ideas about design. Each site offered lessons on how to blend form with function. These cultural and architectural moments show design is more than appearance. It’s about making places that inspire creativity, support well‑being, and build community.

As you think about your own office, consider how cultural and architectural ideas can shape your space. If you'd like, we can develop concept sketches or a mood palette to explore how these ideas might translate to your workplace. Feel free to contact CGS to discuss how these concepts might inform your workspace design.